LEARNING TO CONNECT CHILDREN, PARENTS, AND TECHNOLOGY

Video: Is Virtual Reality the Future of Education?

A fun place to explore on foot, car, or cart; while working with the community to collect resources to launch our astronauts to space! In order to be successful in the age of information, automation and environmental destruction, students need to be creative and to passionately explore topics they enjoy, while learning about sustainability and science.

Another study has concluded that punitive responses to bad behaviour are not only unproductive, but often are counterproductive. A behavioural economist from MIT has demonstrated a causal relationship between being sentenced to juvenile detention, and a 13% drop in graduation, and a 23% increase in adult incarceration.

While preschool is important for students to develop social skills, emotional skills within a social setting, and as a community centre where families can connect with dental, medical and other services; it has not found to have any more educational value than watching Sesame Street.

Researchers have found that 9 year old children gained a deeper understanding of basic math problems, when they used abstract hand gestures to learn math skills. A previous study provided evidence that children diagnosed ADHD who moved around, also learned better. Instead of telling kids to sit still and listen when learning, perhaps they would benefit more from a dynamic environment that they can physically interact with.

Research has found that children who are more altruistic (those who are likely to share with and help others) were more likely to come from low income households, and have a stronger heart (in the form of vagal tone). It seems that some rich kids could learn a thing about being a decent human from the poor.

ADHD is a very controversial subject within Educational Psychology. This may be because of the difficulty to objectively diagnose someone with it. With the global rise in ADHD levels, there have been suggestions increases may be a result of changes in those making the diagnosis rather than those receiving diagnosis.. In France where the childhood rate of ADHD is 0.5% (compared to 9% in the US), professionals focus “on identifying and addressing the underlying psychosocial causes of children's symptoms, not on finding the best pharmacological bandaids with which to mask symptoms.”

It's understandable that parents and educators want students to do the best they can, however, too much pressure to live up to perfect ideals can be unhealthy. Societies such as South Korea, that have exceptionally high expectations for students to achieve highly in standardised tests, have the highest rates of suicide in the OECD (along with a number of other reasons, such as stigma of depression, and social shunning). I specified the use of standardised tests, as they do not suit everyone's learning style, and up to 50% of students are required to fail.

New research provides evidence that childhood bullying by peers can have longer lasting effects on mental health than maltreatment from adults. Being bullied can increase the chance of developing depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies by more than maltreatment alone. "Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up; it has serious long-term consequences. It is important for schools, health services and other agencies to work together to reduce bullying and the adverse effects related to it." said lead author Professor Wolke.

Are many teens lazy and grumpy because of all them hormones, or do they just need more sleep? Multiple studies have found teens have a different sleep pattern to adults, that tired students do worse at school, and that later starting times for school could help improve student's learning outcomes. I wonder if a lack of sleep explains their music choices as well...

What’s causing the apparent global rise in autism? Are there more autistic kids all of a sudden, are vaccines to blame (no, definitely not!), or something less sinister? Researchers from Sweden compared clinical diagnoses of autism to prevalence of the autism phenotype, over a 10 year period. They concluded that reported 30% increases in autism over recent years are due to differences in clinical methods for diagnosis and analysis of autism, rather than more autistic children.

Kids are almost ALWAYS online these days! Kids between 8 and 18 are using devices 7.38 on average. However, with so much media multitasking they manage to pack in 10.45 hours of use in a day on average.

Considering past research from Kolovou et al. (2013) showed how video games could be used as an effective educational tool, now research has shown video games can increase neural connectivity in the brain. Perhaps more resources and effort should be put into using video games for educational purposes to keep students motivated. I know that if Candy Crush taught me new words, I'd have way more words in my list of words I know.

Paper: Online Video Games Improve Students' Self Motivation to Practice Algebra in School and at Home

This paper provides evidence that online videogames could be an effective way of self motivating students to practice algebra outside of class hours. Although the schools and students were not randomly assigned, the findings still warrant consideration when developing educational tools. People like playing video games, and playing them seems to motivate students to learn more. Everybody wins right? Sure, but proceed with caution. It has to be designed well, not all games will improve understanding; and don't overuse and spoil the novelty of each game.

While it seems extremely young for most 2 year olds to be using mobile devices regularly, I am not overly surprised. I wonder if young children from higher income and higher education households would use mobile devices more or less?

Research that has found links between differences in brain development of children and their parents' income levels. Although the results were correlational and not casuational, they showed that the children who were most disadvantaged by their parents' income were likely to be most affected by the diffrerences in brain development, while the differences in brain development in affluent families were significantly smaller.

This delves into the the impact of a person's environment on their learning. This may help you realise why you like so many of the songs in the TOP 40, and why two Mums never make lasagna the same way.

In all 64 countries included in the study girls outperformed boys by a year of school, on average. What's causing this difference in grades? Are girls smarter or are boys just more annoying to teachers?

Education these days...

Education website or blog discusses education, internet, and technology to inform parents, teachers, children, and educators. A scientific theme is followed with humour and wit to guide articles. Detail of environmental pressure such as bullying, gender differences, brain plasticity, and ADHD diagnosis are explored.